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Commentary Too - Oct 11, 2004 - Printable Version
- From the Core of the Big Apple
by Kevin Raney
Just the other day I was riding the train to work, it wasn’t a typical day in New York City; we were experiencing the repercussions of the hurricanes that were currently rocking the hell out of the great state of Florida.
The train service announcements were confusing w/ messages of train delays, stalled trains, and cancellations were pending. Questions rising from the platform from the local commuters: “What’s going on…?” “Are the trains running…?” “Does anyone know if the “A” train is going up town…?” “Does anyone know what the hell is happening”?
For clarification, I’m actually referring to the subways, but the term train is a generalization used by most New Yorkers, much like Kleenex is used when referring to a tissue.
Now wait, please don’t be so quick to write me off as a Yank who has found another web site to blow his liberal horn. I’m not a native New Yorker, I’m a Midwest transplant who has been here for the past four and half years, who’s once again chasing his American dream.
I lived in New York City over twelve years ago, and I can tell you that things have changed since 9/11 and yet, some things remain the same……
“Are we safer now than we were four years ago”?
When I lost my virginity to the Big Apple back in the fall of 1993, my first job was temping for a graphics arts firm located in the Twin Towers.
Everyday I would ride the “A” train down to the financial district. Ascending the escalators into the loins of tower number one, walking across the pavilion to the elevators and on up to the thirty fourth floor. The office view I was lucky to have was the northeast side of the City. You could view the Empire State building, most of the financial district as well as the East river. It truly was something to behold. Yet even now, I can still recall the feeling of uncertainty.
My coworkers enjoyed the fact that I hailed from the great state of Kansas, as the jokes seemed endless. Daily when it was lunchtime, someone would ask if I wanted to join the brave and forge a path up to the restaurant of the “Windows of the World” sixty some floor above our offices. I always declined. Quick to point out that it was much too high for me and I preferred my lunch in the courtyard of the buildings.
More times than I can count while eating my peanut butter sandwich and swigging on my coca cola at ground level, I would look up the sides of the Towers and with great perplexity ponder the question of “what if”,… thinking it’s best to not know the inevitable.
On September 11, 2001 in route on the E train to work, in typical New York fashion, arriving late and making my way into the offices of Bark Frameworks, a high end art framing company in located in SOHO and Queens. I found everyone gathered around the radio in the office and the look on the staff members faces told it all.
Some heavy shit was going down!
A plane had struck the Twin Towers. Confusion, disbelief and fear, none of us could wrap our heads around the fact that a COMMERCIAL AIRPLANE had hit one of the towers and then shortly after to add to our denial, another one had struck.
But it didn’t stop there. With the radio blaring, the Pentagon had been hit and all commercial airlines were ordered to land, the airways of the United States were closed to all air traffic.
Feeling completely numb I made my way to my office and called my dad, leaving a message that I was “okay” and not to worry, w/ a reassuring laugh on my end of “looks like I’ll be walking across the bridge to get home tonight”.
At the end of our block, along side of my coworkers we had the great misfortune, like many others on the street that day, to witness the burning and horrific demise of the Towers. The realization of the impending inevitability of the Towers had finally come full circle.
“Are we safer now than we were four years ago?”
Since 9/11, New York has changed and so has our way of thinking, or has it?
For example, going to the bank to make a deposit is completely a new experience.
Should you have to do any banking at the Citibank on 53rd and Lexington or Citibank at Court Square in Queens you’ll find the banks are surrounded by police barricades with commercial buses standing idle of the banks perimeter.
When you’re finally passed the wall of the false sense of security, you are met by the banks hired patrol guards (or some yahoo in a suit and tie). You’re demanded to show proof of ID, any and all bags are inspected on the spot, and you have to state your business, i.e. “I’m here to make a deposit”, and you’ll have to repeat it because the person you are speaking to can barely understand English.
When you board the public subways, which over a million people use on a daily basis, the ONLY thing you have to do is swipe a card at the turnstile and board at your leisure. No ID’s to display. No bags are checked. No questions asked.
If you are coming into New York City via any of the bridges or tunnels, you simply pay the toll and drive right on through. Again, No bags checked, no ID to show, no questions asked.
The only time that I can feel a sense of safety in the City is when a dignitary is coming to visit, i.e. when the Republicans held their national convention in New York just over a month ago at Madison Square Garden.
The City purchased special equipment, an electronic “bull horn” for starters, (the size of a Volkswagon) which was stationed outside the Gardens and could be heard several blocks away to broadcast instructions in the event of an emergency. Many will tell you it was to drown out any of the protestors who felt they could raise a chant loud enough to be heard over the convention.
A special bridge / walkway were erected over 34th street by the City to ensure the safety of the Republicans. They would have access to cross over from the United States Post Office, located directly across from the Gardens. Again, the City was only ensuring the safety of our guests, the Republicans.
Dozens of street closures, subways diverted, cancelled trains into Penn station, and local business closings all for the sake of safety during the National Republican Convention.
And, most importantly, the denied permits of those who wanted to gather on the great lawn located in Central Park to hold a rally to protest the convention, to exercise their constitutional right of the first amendment. Permit denied! The reason the City gave to the press, “the great lawn was at great risk of the protestors, it was recently replanted”. Yeah, over two years ago!
Senator Kerry raised the question to President Bush during the debates. Are our Cities, Water ports, Airports, Bridges and Tunnels safer today Mr. President?
Have things really changed for the better?
Ask a New Yorker what he thinks and he’ll probably tell you the same, it’s not a question of could it happen again, it’s a question of when, just on who’s watch will it be?
There is so much more I would like to say so please forgive me for digressing.
…..while I was waiting for more conflicting announcements from the MTA regarding the fate of the trains I was approached by a man and his wife who explained they were vacationing in the City and wanted to know if the “A” train would be stopping at Canal Street. I replied that on any other given day, yes it would, however today was unusual and it was anyone’s guess.
When I asked where they were on vacation from, the man replied “Oh I doubt you ever heard of it, just a small town called Edmond, in Oklahoma.
I explained I was all too familiar with Edmond, that my mother lived in Weatherford and I was there just a few months ago.
The man’s wife spoke up and asked, “Well, whatever are you doing living here?”
Smiling, I replied, “I’m still trying to figure that one out!”
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